


Aftermath

by sparklight



Category: Transformers (Dreamwave Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Plug and Play Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-23 23:30:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/627723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklight/pseuds/sparklight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The further development of a relationship as seen through the aftermath of a number of situations. Because it's what you do after that matters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. After Aborted Destinies

_"---I don't **believe** in destiny!"_

There shouldn't have been enough time to have tossed Sunstorm away from himself, cut his boosters and free-fall away as the explosion bloomed above. Bloomed, and then slammed into Jetfire, the heat angry on his abused plating, systems further flickering, circuits crackling and maybe melting from the radioactive elements as he had no radiation shielding left in his armour, and giving him an extra push he certainly _did not need_. Luckily, it was simply the shockwave and while engaging his full flight-systems didn't immediately stop his descent, that hadn't been Jetfire's goal, either. He just needed _some_ sort of braking of his speed as he fought against gravity and disorientation to arrange himself feet first for now. The wind seared past his slowly slowing chassis, tearing into wounds and ripping off shards of armour glass from the hole in his cockpit and tiny shards of metal that were just hanging on by magnetism or slim fragments themselves around his wounds. The landing would be uncomfortable. 

_Very_ uncomfortable. 

Jetfire hoped Starscream had taken Bumblebee out of that pit.

*********

"Starscream?" Vents protesting, spewing sand out of them, Jetfire groaned as he attempted to move, collapsed back down, and grunted as he was _kicked_ in his lower leg. Comparatively gently, yes, but kicked nonetheless.

" _Starscream_..." Jetfire muttered, relieved he'd got an arm under himself as he dropped back down again, because otherwise there'd be sand collecting in his mouth, and while it didn't exactly have anywhere to go with the fuel intake-valve closed it still wouldn't have been pleasant. The hand trapped underneath him flexed, pistons working and cables flexing, but he couldn't find the strength and leverage yet to get himself into another position. He was exhausted.

"You. are. an. idiot." Starscream punctuated his words with, thankfully, not kicks this time, but pokes to the arm not trapped under Jetfire, before he grabbed it and helped the larger jet at least sit upright, giving a huff at the cascades of sand that ran down the white plating with Jetfire's shifted position.

"This is the _last time_ I dig you out of anything. One could think you have an affinity for this dirtball, Jetfire, the way you end up buried in various strata and materials of it!" Starscream sneered, then collapsed heavily down beside Jetfire, grumbling, but otherwise surprisingly quietly as he tapped sand out of his thrusters. 

Rubbing the side of his helm, Jetfire looked around even as he cast a glance at his internal HUD. Boosters almost completely burned out, remaining capacity at 19.8% percent. They'd need to be repaired before he could even think about reupping the fuel for them. There were further various breaches in his armour, wiring ripped out or half-melted, and an uncomfortable hole in his cockpit, though the sharp edges of the glass had melted quickly in his heated descent. Basically, he was a wreck. But what had Starscream meant by having to dig him out..? A quick look around easily answered that question as he must have, despite having attempted to slow his descent, crashed-landed hard into the beach. 

There was a track half as deep as Jetfire was tall viciously torn into the ground, leading a fair bit in from the water's edge and small waves of sand packed up on either side of the newly-made ditch. The mounds of sand around the area Jetfire and Starscream now sat in had clearly been moved there; they were sitting in what had become a pit and sand was continually falling down in thin veils on them when gusts of wind danced over the now-decimated beach, rustling palm leaves.

"Thank you, Starscream," Jetfire sighed and rubbed the back of his helm again. What else was there to say? He'd probably have been able to get out from under all the sand himself, but who knows how long it would have taken him to online again on his own? Starscream scoffed, then frowned up at Jetfire, finally putting down the leg he'd been trying to get all the sand out of the thruster of.

"Don't expect the same treatment again. I left the little yellow one on another beach. Unharmed." The Seeker frowned and looked away, fingers tapping against his thighs while he followed the ditch Jetfire's crash had created down to the water's edge. Before Jetfire could open his mouth again, however, Starscream whirled back around, jabbing him in the chestplates.

"You're a _mess_. Don't you _dare_ get such a slagging stupid idea again. _Prime's_ the idiotically heroic and self-sacrificing one! Just because you feel left out of their little cultist circle is no reason to take after the _worst_ Autobot traits," Starscream huffed and then immediately scowled and turned away to stare at one of the mounds he'd created himself by digging the large jet out.

"... Cultist circle? Honestly, Starscream," Jetfire murmured after several kliks of silence and slid slightly lower in his seat in the sand. He felt brittle. He hoped he'd be able to convince the Autobots to get him the materials he needed to repair his armour... Maybe he could even take the time to research and do further refining on it...

"Stop doing that," Starscream said with a growl and then stood up, folding his arms over his cockpit. "Not that it matters. You can go off into your scientific la-la-land as much as you want as soon as I'm gone." With that, he turned away, but didn't get very far as his wrist... or rather, hand and part of his lower arm, considering the size difference, was snagged. And in comparision with Bumblebee's grip, even this weakened one was hard to jerk out of.

"A moment, Starscream," Jetfire said with a frown, and then unceremoniously showed he had regained enough strength to not just pull the Seeker off his balance (though dry sand didn't make for good traction or something stable to struggle on), but to pull him down between his legs and trap him in his arms.

"Jetfire! Release me _at once_! If you think you can take me back to the Autobots, you've got ano--"

"No, that's not what it's about. Just... Sit still for a while." It was probably revealing too much, making his new-found revelation too clear, but... Well. Starscream was Starscream, and he seemed decidedly... more pleasant than in the middle of the war. Jetfire had no idea what happened between then and now. The Seeker he'd known in the Academy was more like the one he'd been talking to after being thawed, the one he was currently hugging, than the one he'd been fighting on Cybertron, especially mid-war, after he'd left the Decepticons. Starscream proved this observation to be true by actually still with the loudest, most put-upon static sigh ever heard.

"You're softer than a _kitten_ , Jetfire. What do you even want to get out of this?" Starscream squirmed his right arm free of Jetfire's embrace to be able to properly wave it around to underscore his point, scowling at the broken off and melted piece of null-ray stuck to it.

"... Kitten?" Jetfire frowned, and after a few tries and a satellite link connection managed to hook up to the local/global information network - the internet, the local dominant species apparently called it - and find out what a 'kitten' was. Shaking his helm at the images and information that called up, as even though he understood what Starscream was after with the comparsion, Autobot ideals and such things, Jetfire decided to not protest the point and offlined his optics.

"Just a moment, Starscream. No shooting at each other, no out-maneuvering---"

"No slamming me into the ground."

"No slamming you into the ground," Jetfire agreed, chuckling slightly. "I don't think I'm in any condition to do that at the moment." Relatively sure Starscream wouldn't take off immediately, Jetfire relaxed his hold/embrace and allowed Starscream to get out of it, sitting down beside him again instead.

"I don't know what sort of _Autobot revelation_ you had while flying to your guaranteed _doom_ like an overgrown glitch, but I hope you remember we're supposed to be enemies," Starscream sneered, but there was only half the heat that could have been in there. Jetfire shook his helm and leaned forward to rest his arms on his knees.

"Call it a pre-Autobot memory dump. But I suppose you'd consider the part where I decided that what mattered... was that we were friends, not the fighting, to be an 'Autobot sensitivity'." Jetfire muttered, a static sigh slipping out along with the last two words and adjusting his visual feed so he could look at Starscream through the side of it while allowing the diagnostic scan being run to take up the rest of the HUD. Starscream had opened his mouth, sneer firmly on his faceplates, but then just... snapped it closed again and groaned, dragging a hand over his face.

"Is all that scientific babble clogging up your processor and making it _slow_? Or did Sunstorm scramble your cerebro-circuits after he overtaxed your radiation shielding? That doesn't matter anymore, Jetfire. It _can't_ ," Starscream said, first crossing his arms and then relaxing them so he could gesticulate some more. As he spoke, he angled away slightly, but despite this, his right foot was up against Jetfire's. Further, the way Starscream had angled himself, while it did increase the general distance between them, it now allowed Starscream's wing to be pressed up against Jetfire's. 

Always so full of contradictions, always so _dramatic_.

"Maybe not," Jetfire agreed, pausing long enough for Starscream to relax slightly from his stiff posture, wings brushing gently against each other as he did so. "Maybe not for _you_. I don't like and I certainly can't say I _appreciate_ all the back-and-forth of earlier, but I'm not going to go out of my way to attack you. It's not _worth it_. No matter all the issues and differing opinions that finally made me leave and I may not agree with you, but I would prefer you alive. You are... prehaps impossibly, still my friend, Starscream," Jetfire frowned at the ground and then jerked slightly as Starscream slapped him harshly on the arm, growling.

"And what about your Autobot _friends_? Are you even thinking about them, what they're gonna think about your quaint revelation? Or that I might not care for you, or it, or---" Starscream cut himself off, glaring up at the sky and then continued, turning to a slightly different topic. Something more comfortable. "Even if _you_ don't kill me, the war might. Not that I'm going to let it, mind you! I've gotten rid of Megatron, and Shockwave's languishing somewhere on Cybertron, the Decepticons are mine now!" Starscream smirked, and Jetfire finally raised his helm and turned it to look at Starscream, expression mild.

"To what end? Now that you have them, what will you do? If I understand it right from what Bumblebee said, the Autobots effectively have Cybertron." Jetfire shook his helm and then sat back, slumping slightly and only with the barest of attention stared up at the perfectly blue sky and small, fluffy clouds. 

He was tired. 

There was the noise metal shifting and a null-ray powering up, and then he had a barrel pressed against the front of his helm. Starscream's right hand was pressing into and around the hole in his cockpit.

"I could kill you, you know," Starscream hissed, and Jetfire could easily imagine the expression; optics narrow, faceplates pinched that was as much frustration as it was real anger.

"You could, yes. Are you going to?" Oh, he didn't want to die, even less here and now after escaping what had seemed a certain deactivation in a very... explosive way, but...

"No. If I do that, you're not going to be around to see my total victory, are you?" Starscream removed his left arm, the faint, humming friction of the null-ray dying down as it was turned off and dug his fingers into the vent on Jetfire's shoulder instead. His other hand was still uncomfortably pressed up against the hole in Jetfire's cockpit.

"I'm sure you could gloat to me either way." Jetfire finally shifted his gaze downwards again and leaned forward, Starscream reading him and... for once not being difficult and just leaned forward himself, the front of their helms meeting with a muffled tinkling sound.

"It wouldn't be nearly as satisfying. Especially since I could have you kneeling by my throne," Starscream said with a smirk, tone light, and Jetfire shook his helm gently, so as to not dislodge their touch.

"Whatever happens, I have doubts about _that_ being the most possible outcome. Especially with the calculated odds against you, Starscream."

"Shush, you glorified calculation drone," Starscream admonished, patting the still-whole cockpit glass above the hole. Jetfire snorted and bumped his helm against Starscream's.

"I may be injured, but I'm still stronger than you, so insulting me while you're sitting practically on top of me isn't something I _recommend_." All Jetfire did, however, was to briefly raise his hands and lightly run a few fingers down the outer edges of Starscream's wings. The Seeker chuckled faintly, disguising his light shiver with a bump of his own. They stayed like that for several minutes until Starscream got off - he had, indeed, been sitting on Jetfire - and crossed his arms.

"You stay there. I'll find the yellow insect for you and send him your way. Don't expect any more _help_ though," Starscream said, walking past Jetfire slowly enough for their fingers to brush briefly before he took to the sky. 

Jetfire tilted his helm back to watch Starscream tear straight up, circle the area once, and then take off.


	2. After a Fight

"---Is that what you _want_?!" The bellow, the first from Jetfire during their post-battle argument, caused the heated air to vanish with a near-audible pop, as if someone had taken a needle to a balloon and punctured it. Silence wrapped itself, bold and aggressive, about the two flyers as Starscream's expression went from unbridled, offended rage into something less... certain. The humming null-ray quieted just as Jetfire squeezed the hand he'd earlier caught and let it go. The moment they'd had on the beach after the fight with Sunstorm seemed not only thousand of hics away, but also millions of years. This was familiar, old and worn and _not_ what he'd wanted to retread. But... There was a slight difference here. Starscream was - no matter if he was stuck because of Jetfire holding him in place or not - actually _listening_. 

He'd never done that before.

"Is that what you would have wanted, what you _want_? For me to have _stayed_? I'd have to _change_ , become someone else entirely if I had! You understand this, right? That's what you're demanding by saying I shouldn't have left, Starscream. I... apologise that my leaving _hurt you_ , but I'm not going to apologise for _leaving_ ," Jetfire said quietly, staring down into lambent red optics, his expression solemn rather than livid. He'd already run out of anger. 

While every angry snap of denouncement, every verbal slash of "traitor!" hurt, it was old. When he left, he'd only known he couldn't stay. He might not have done it in the most graceful of ways, but he wasn't infallible, and the situation, Starscream, _everything_ had been confusing and been hurting him as his leaving still clawed at Starscream. He'd tried, after the enchantment with Decepticon ideals and philosophies had faded, for Starscream, for their friendship, but even that loyalty couldn't last forever. He'd been angry, then, at the lack of comprehension, if not _acceptance_. They'd fought enough to exemplify their factions' ire against the other.   
Later, he'd realized he _couldn't_ have stayed if he was to be himself, and maybe he should still have apologised somewhere in all that, but he could see now that that realisation had been as long in coming as his understanding that he still considered Starscream a friend had been. Starscream, however... 

Well, Jetfire couldn't say he was _surprised_ the Seeker hadn't considered the fact that Jetfire would've had to change, to become someone he wasn't if he were to stay, merely seen the personal insult as all that mattered, as the only thing he'd seen at all.

"I _tried_ , Starscream, but---"

"Let _go_ ," Starscream hissed, tugging on the arm that was still caught in Jetfire's other hand. The arm Jetfire had grabbed when Starscream flung it up, null-ray powered up and ready to fire, had been yanked _closer_ , not _away_ from his helm, pressing the barrel to the side of his helm while throwing his last few sentences out. "This isn't about you, you weak-sparked, fence-sitting trai---" Starscream's expression when Jetfire actually interrupted him - a tactic he hadn't used more than, perhaps, two handful of times, even with all the time they'd known each other - would in any other situation have been amusing amusing. Jetfire was too frustrated still to listen to those old words again, especially as the brief flicker of bright surprise, Starscream's optics growing wide at his apology, had already faded.

"No? And if this isn't about me, you, and _us_ , what are we doing this for, then? If this isn't about what you feel I have been, or should have been doing, but about something as simple as a defection... Why not go after Grimlock?" Jetfire could have snapped the words out, harsh and short, but instead they came out quiet and soft, but all the more unbending for that. " _He_ has, by now, joined, left and rejoined both our factions quite a lot more than I have." The quiet words and bald, narrow stare from Jetfire had Starscream sputtering before he yanked on his arm again, and this time it was let go. And while Starscream's flight systems powered up again and there was an initial whine from his transformation cog, he didn't immediately leave.

"So maybe it _is_." But Starscream didn't elaborate on what was supposed to be something, but considering their topic, Jetfire didn't need the elaboration. "That doesn't mean you _aren't_ a---rrgh." Starscream cut himself off this time, scowling at Jetfire's cocked helm and look. 

How _dare_ he make this about _him_? !

He had left, thrown it all--- Well, that was what Jetfire _was_ saying wasn't it? 

No! 

He wouldn't let the overgrown flying _grounder_ get to him with his stupid arguments... Or even get him with that stupid, worthless, for the first time ever even given apology--- With a snarl, Starscream balled one hand into a fist and slammed it against the Autobrand above Jetfire's cockpit. The larger jet just looked at him, the beginnings of a frown teasing his faceplates.

"Starscream..."

"No. Shut up. Just..." He wasn't even sure what he wanted with this. He hadn't even _considered_ that Jetfire might feel that he would need to change to stay. But if that was so, maybe he _should have_! Starscream couldn't even convince himself, right now, that that was what he would have wanted, no matter what a _weak, Autobot sympathizer_ Jetfire was now. And those few, simple words just a klik or so earlier burned in his processor. Not the ones about having to change, the ones that started with _I apologise_... and even if that wasn't _enough_ it was...

"We're _not_ talking about this any more," Starscream finally snapped, pushing himself back by briefly burning his thrusters some more. Jetfire tilted his helm in a brief nod, and for a moment, Starscream wanted to shoot that insufferably _patient_ expression off Jetfire's faceplates. But that patience was also why the idiot continued to--- No, he was simply amazing, and Jetfire knew that. Patience had nothing to do with it. Not patience, friendship, affection or... or _anything_! Starscream huffed and Jetfire shook his helm, folding his arms over his slightly scorched chestplates.

"Well, if you're done listening to me, I surmise the battle's long over. I don't know about you, but I have a few pings and messages I've ignored."

Starscream grimaced and looked away. Thundercracker and Skywarp knew not to bother him after the first order to stay away, and if it had truly been some sort of emergency or whatever, Skywarp could have been ordered to find him and would have been able to do so. Nonetheless, he _did_ have a scathing message pointedly asking him to join back up on the Nemesis for debriefing when 'he was done with his dalliance'. The nerve!

" _Don't_ let me catch you flying out alone, Jetfire." Starscream finally turned back to glare at the larger jet and then took off, leaving the foolish Autobot to hover far above their previous battleground.


	3. After a Show

He should have ended it. 

With a grimace, Starscream lowered his arms and leaned back against the pile of rocks, his arms crossed, as the large white shape, looking small from this distance, shot away with a muted roar and bluish-tinted flame from the boosters. Jetfire should have known he was there. Starscream hadn't exactly been hidden after all, and he was sure he'd felt a brief, deliberate push of Jetfire's field against his own when the jet had roared impressively - there was no one here, no one could tell he'd admitted this - close to the ground before taking off towards the sky again, twirling around his own axis. He'd caught the idiot out flying over the badlands, and _hadn't_ shot him down. 

Starscream ground one thruster down into the relatively soft ground, aggravated. He should have. What was _wrong_ with him? Jetfire's usefulness was ended. He ignored that he'd dug the jet out of the beach after the battle with Sunstorm... his reasoning had still been glitched due to that loo--- due to _Sunstorm_ and all his blathering! He also ignored that he'd listened to Jetfire a short while ago, listened to his stupid, worthless reasons and arguments and that _apology_. If he could just ignore everthing, if it all could just _co-operate_ , if he could just have Jetfire where he _wanted_ him, if everything could just slot neatly where he _needed_ it to be, this would be a non-issue! 

That he'd almost shot the jet didn't matter, for even if the partly-powered null-rays would've made Jetfire crash, he wouldn't have offlined permanently from that. It didn't matter, since he'd stopped and just _stared_ as the overgrown model plane had flown through some arbitrarily decided-upon restricted desert airspace, both in alt and root mode. Contorted himself into figures and maneuvers only used in displays among flyers... sky dances. Oversentimental _scrap_ and he had _not_ gotten caught by the display of skill, power and the sort of competence only a good flyer could show in the air. 

He hadn't. 

Starscream growled and dragged a hand down his face harshly. 

This was stupid. 

He was being unreasonable. This. would. not. work. 

Whirling around, Starscream kicked the rock formation he'd been leaning against, stalked off, and then snapped around, blasting the large formation into pieces before he took off. 

Next time, he'd do what he _should_ do.


	4. After the End

"Jetfire---" The finger against his lips hardly stopped him from speaking, but Starscream fell quiet anyway, annoyance raw over his circuits, mingling with the pain. He needed a medic. Matrix alight, they _both_ did. And what was the silly jet doing? Sitting on the ground in this newly carved ravine on Earth's moon, Starscream pulled up against him, half curled around the smaller jet as if this would solve anything at all. There was a thin trail of energon slowly forming a miniature river as it worked itself over the surface of the moon, trickling by Jetfire's thigh. That came from his boosters, and the idiot was just _sitting there_ as if there wasn't a chance something could take spark and explode. 

Attempting to pull away was useless; Jetfire, despite the ripped up armour on his left arm and the torn cables leading up to the elbow joint, was strong enough to keep Starscream in place, and it wasn't as if Starscream himself wasn't running extremely low on energy.

"This is _exceedingly stupid_ and we _both_ need medics!" Starscream snapped but was obliged to pull his legs under him, for his own comfort, obviously not because this brought him closer to the spark humming away underneath its protective plating, both of their cockpits cracked and splintered.

"I know." And that was all the overgrown toy jet would say, hugging Starscream closer, hands warm against abused back plating that had taken more than one glancing brush of energy from the purple maniac's _orange cannon_. 

Who the slag had a paintjob like that, anyway? 

Above them, far beyond the reach of either Earth or the Moon's negligible gravity, pieces of foreign metal spun in space, the last traces of the tear in space-time flickering, collapsing in on itself, the planet eater gone with the tear, pushed and fallen through it by that blasted Prime and the Matrix. Starscream huffed and snaked an arm under Jetfire's right one, clutching the back of it, pleased (but would never admit to that) to find some place that _didn't_ have a crack or a tear, and wasn't lacking plating or dripping energon. 

His other hand nestled, after some hesitation, up against the plating above Jetfire's broken cockpit, and he pretended not to hear the soft hum... or the quiet, purring noise from the powerful engine housed within. They hadn't been this close in a long time. Not even after Starscream had dug Jetfire up from the beach where he'd crashed after fighting Sunstorm. 

They could sit here a bit longer. 

As long as no one shot at them (no one even knew they were here), Jetfire was unlikely to explode from the compromised boosters, and if they hadn't died yet, visits to their corresponding medics could wait a bit longer.

"You're going to get us both killed," Starscream muttered and offlined his optics, relaxing slightly and slowly rubbing over the singed but otherwise unharmed Autobrand on Jetfire's chestplates. There was a brief, slightly static-laced chuckle from above, and a brush of lips on the top of his helm. Yes... Just a few more kliks couldn't harm anything. They needed to gather enough energy to fly anyway.


	5. After Capture

They'd sat there for nearly half a joor, curled together and listening to the workings of their systems, EM fields only barely just pressed up against the other's. It was really too long, not just due to the fact that they weren't getting any more fuel by sitting around, but also because they could've risked being discovered. It was sort of amazing no one came looking for them from either of their factions, but it was possible everybody assumed they had crashed and been lost and/or stuck on Earth, not the moon, and were concentrating searches down there instead of up _here_. Starscream finally stirred and gave the arm he'd only out of idle boredome been lazily trailing circles over a harsh slap.

"Get up. We're going back. If you stay here any longer, you're gonna kill some human when you drop from the sky due to lack of energon, and you don't want that do you?" While they'd both been leaking, Jetfire was the only one who had a crack in his boosters which meant he couldn't use them to shorten the time it'd take to descend to the planet... Which meant more energon used, and since he was _already leaking_...

"I still have two point five breems until I would _have_ to leave due to lack of fuel affecting my descent, but yes." Jetfire looked away as he slowly stood up, concealing the brief smile at Starscream's grimace and warning finger pointing at him. Out of interest of not bringing down either a derisive rant or the wrath of Starscream, Jetfire did abort the longer explanation he'd almost divulged. Overall, it would really have been better had they been lost and stuck somewhere on Earth; more of a chance they would have been found, less personal risk in getting back to their respective bases, but it was what it was. Judging that he _wouldn't_ have to remain on the Moon and just leak into deactivation, Jetfire turned back to Starscream, the two of them staring at each other for several kliks.

"Starscream---"

"This changes _nothing_." Starscream interrupted him and, scowling, threaded his fingers into the slats of the intake vents of Jetfire's torso, using them to yank (well, more like strongly encourage, but that was a kind of sensitive place, after all...) him down so they were faceplates to faceplates. Giving the larger jet a glare, but yet briefly hesitating before he snarled and then, without explanation or so much as any further pause, kissed Jetfire. Starscream had offlined his optics the second their lips touched, and so, probably just as well, really, couldn't see the slight softening of Jetfire's expression. He... wasn't sure where this _came from_ , and if he'd had more energy, he'd be more confused, trying to think about it more. As it was, he merely tilted his helm a little more, pushing closer--- And then Starscream jerked back, unheedingly scraping the slats in the vents as he pulled his fingers out.

"Enough!" Despite this, and despite the wide optics underlining the near-rage of Starscream trying to explain his actions away; he shouldn't have done it, but if either of them had _died_ , what then? That had _already_ almost happened, and that... - when Jetfire reached out and briefly squeezed Starcsream's fingers with his own, Starscream squeezed back. Then he slapped the hand away and engaged his flight systems, tearing slightly unsteadily away from the Moon.

********

It took Jetfire another half joor to actually get down to Earth, having to cut power every so often and use the gravity pull of Earth to get closer. As such, he lost visual of Starscream quickly and it wasn't until he was actually descending and got into radio-range of Autobot City that he got any clue that things probably hadn't gone as Starscream may have wished them to. Not that he took Blaster's cheery call and congratulations as anything than for actually having _survived_ , but it was confusing nonetheless.

"We're glad you're all right, Jetfire. What happened to delay you?" Prowl was the one to meet him at one of the few landing balconies, and Jetfire suppressed a static sigh and merely shook his helm.

"I had to rest on the Moon to make sure nothing was too damaged to fly. Unfortunately, it meant sitting around with leaking boosters..." Jetfire wasn't really that good with lying, but he wasn't actually _lying_. Just omitting that he'd been sitting around cudd-- Er. Keeping Starscream company. "Which was part of the reason I had to make sure I could fly, and I didn't have the sort of resources with me to do any lasting temporary repairs. Due to what I had available, any patches had to wait until it was prudent to use them. It takes a lot longer to do the Moon-Earth distance without the boosters, and I had to pause to make that temporary patch so the energon wouldn't ignite from atmospheric re-entry," Jetfire said quietly as they walked, and he was relieved to notice that they weren't walking towards the command center, or the command staff offices, but the medbay. He did need repairs.

"You didn't meet Starscream, then? He seemed quite upset that he'd managed to set a route that made it very easy for us to pick him up after he had a low-altitude crash from lack of energy." Prowl glanced up at Jetfire, and continued, mildly, before the jet could say anything. "He blamed you, you see."

Jetfire just shook his helm and paused at the medbay doors.

"We did meet in the battle, and on the Moon, but Starscream likes to blame quite a lot of things on me." Jetfire gave a small one-shoulder shrug, not elaborating further. Starscream did tend to either blame him, or tell him to shut up if he either thought Jetfire was wasting his time (like back on the _Orion_ ), or if he wasn't interested in the _very useful_ science Jetfire had to offer. Prowl merely nodded and turned to leave. Jetfire hesitated for a few astroseconds and then turned around. He would probably come to regret this, but he couldn't _not_ ask. Not with how things had been going lately. Not with what just had happened.

"Prowl. I understand that it might not be possible, but... I would like to talk to Starscream." Jetfire met Prowl's optics as he partly turned around with a frank stare, and didn't say anything more. Most of the Ark-crew were still somewhat hesitant around him, and while frustrating, he did understand. Even if the amount of time he'd been with the Autobots compared to the Decepticons long since had tipped into the Autobots' favour, and compared to some _others_ he had not spent any time recently skipping between factions like it was a game.

"It's not impossible, Jetfire, and even if I hadn't just checked with Prime, I would have said yes." Prowl paused and expelled a vent, frowning. Clearly he didn't approve of whatever Optimus had further given allowance for, but wasn't going to fight the Prime on this. "You have a cycle inside the cell with no guard, as per Optimus' orders. There will, obviously, still be surveillance running." Prowl's expression grew stern, but he was frowning at his datapad as much as he was up at Jetfire, who merely nodded. He had too much practice - and controlled his emotions too well - to reveal not just the relief but also... almost conflictedly, the happiness at being allowed to go talk to Starscream... Without a guard, even.

"Thank you." Jetfire grimaced when his vocals partly glitched and fuzzed with static, and Prowl chuckled, putting away the datapad he'd been working at previously before turning to continue his aborted walk down the corridor.

"Get yourself repaired and refuelled before you do anything else, otherwise you'll just keel over."

********

A little over a cycle after striding into the medbay, Jetfire stood at the doors of the small "prison" area in Autobot City which was something between actual cells and just holding rooms for punishments, or to hold those suspected of crimes. He briefly rested a hand flat against the doors before he keyed them open and stepped inside. There was no reason to hesitate more than that; if he was going to get further with Starscream - though why he was thinking like that considering the war, besides the fact that they'd sort of teamed up against Unicron, Jetfire wasn't sure - hesitation would bring him nothing.

All experience and facts up until this pointed cleanly towards that hesitation would bring him nothing. Had, in fact, actully given him nothing but a lot of _trouble_. Starscream had been annoyed as he hesitated to join the Decepticons (but that had then gone away in favour of being pleased when he finally _did_ do it), then his hesitation had obviously compounded the feeling of betrayal... And of course all the suspicion over his loyalties after he joined the Autobots, despite that he took his time to decide to join the Decepticons, but most wouldn't know about that.

"I hope Prime and Prowl know what they're doing."

Jetfire ignored Sunstreaker's mutter, even if both of them nodded or waved at him as they passed him and the doors slid shut. From here, he couldn't see Starscream, who was most probably sulking in a corner... Walking down the corridor to a cell in the middle of the room, the only one with lit bars, Jetfire stopped there, crossing his arms. Yes, sulking. Starscream was slumped on the berth-alcove, legs up against his upper frame, arms laying loosely over his knees, a rather spectacular scowl on his dark faceplates. It made the glow from his optics a shade more intense.

"I'm glad you got to Earth and at a low altitude before the lack of energy got to you. Crashing from a high altitude and at speed is unpleasant... at best. Crippling, at worst," Jetfire murmured, making sure to keep his voice rather low, more to not startle Starscream than anything else. But that didn't help as Starscream jerked, almost falling off the berth and only hindering that by flailingly grabbing at the wall and the edge of the berth.

"What-- _Jetfire_! Warn me next time!" Starscream said as he sat up properly and then started to stand up. Surprisingly, he actually stopped when Jetfire held a hand up... Even if his hands balled up into fists and his scowl turned into a snarl at being _told to stay put_. But the expression flickered into confusion as Jetfire disabled the bars and stepped in. Starscream looked briefly annoyed as the bars flickered to life again behind Jetfire, but quickly focused his gaze back at the larger jet, crossing his arms.

"What are you doing here, Jetfire? I didn't think you'd want to waste time on a _Decepticon prisoner_." Helm cocked, Starscream stared narrowly at him, but Jetfire merely glanced down at the ground for a very brief moment and then back up at Starscream.

"While you can be a handful, you're not a waste of time, Starscream. They repaired you, I see." Jetfire nodded, looking over the now-gleaming metal, lacking any injuries. Though he was, of course, missing his null-rays, like he had when he'd asked for the Orion expedition's help. Starscream twitched at the words, glaring at Jetfire and then quickly looking off to where the camera mounted outside the cell was obviously pointing at his cell and thus them. Jetfire huffed and took the single step he could to bring himself closer to Starscream and probably blocking the view for the camera.

"I don't care." He ignored Starscream's grimace and started to talk again before Starscream had a chance to do more than open his mouth, and he also reached out to grasp one of the Seeker's hands. Which Starscream obviously couldn't yank away even if he tried. "Most here are fully aware of my connection to you, Starscream, and either way... Optimus gave me a cycle."

The hand in his grip was yanked viciously one more time before it relaxed, the fingers even curling slightly against his own. That didn't stop Starscream's _other_ hand from slapping his arm.

"And what do you even hope to accomplish, you blasted idiot! This isn't some abadoned beach you've just crashed on, this isn't the _Moon_ , and there's a _camera_ right behind you!" Starscream said, the hand that had slapped the white armour went to poking Jetfire in the armour glass of the cockpit canopy. Tilting his helm, Jetfire arched the upper edge of an optic, and briefly rested his free hand on Starscream's shoulder and upper arm before letting it drop again.

"I'm not sure what _you_ think I want to accomplish, Starscream, but I merely came to make sure you were all right. We were both injured in that fight and you..." Trailing off, Jetfire shrugged. This had nothing to do with the situation, merely Starscream. Starscream, who was a friend, had always been so. Would, concieveably, always be so. Was... Jetfire had accepted even before this, before the kiss, more than that.

"That's what I _mean_!" Starscream let loose a rather explosive exvent, hot air that had gone its full cycle washing over Jetfire's chestplates and mingling with the heat from his own scheduled exvent. "This is--- You're an idiot, as am I," huffed Starscream even as he reached up and lightly ran a finger along the armour covering Jetfire's jaw. Jetfire's optics dimmed slightly - it was such a light, negligent little thing, but it meant as much as Starscream's hand grasping his own.

And then the hand along his jaw curled more firmly about it and tugged. Jetfire frowned down at Starscream, about to ask but got a snapped "quiet!" and another tug. This time he leaned down, cautiously, but Starscream kept tugging until he was rather awkwardly bent down to bring their faceplates roughly at the same height, where Starscream smirked at him, a tiny, sharply angled expression which usually came right before the Seeker accomplished something, or succeeded; Jetfire was most used to it from the Academy. And then he leaned up the tiny bit that was left, wriggled the hand still in Jetfire's grip loose and curled it around the back of Jetfire's helm, bit the larger jet's lower lip, and then fully kissed him.

"Mnhp--"

::Starscream, what--!:: Jetfire almost jerked upright, but Starscream had managed to trick him to lean down far enough and at an awkward enough angle that he had less strength like this, especially when Starscream was practically hanging onto him

::Stay still. Right now you're covering the camera. And no matter my excellent and awesome self, I don't feel like putting on a show at the moment.:: Starscream smirked into the kiss, and Jetfire frowned, about to reply when he caught the stare from those red optics. Slightly canted, then around the cell, and back to Jetfire. He subsided, then, and ran his thumb down the plating on Starscream's arm, dipping down into the connection where a null-ray usually was. Because yes, when else would they - for the foreseeable future, if _ever_ , have a chance like this again? This was probably the best situation they could hope for--- Jetfire's hand on Starscream's arm froze and curled about the ït when clever fingers stroked along his neck-cables, burying in to reach more sensitive cables and wiring.

What was Starscream _doing_?

::Fancy meeting you here.:: A pinch of a cable and Jetfire couldn't supress the shiver or the snort at the smarmy tone as Starscream pressed closer. He didn't need to fully see or feel all of Starscream's expression to recognize the leer he'd used once or twice on other people, though those had been less sincere - creepily enough - than Starscream was being now. ::I want this opportunity, Jetfire. Take care of the camera somehow.:: Starscream demanded, and Jetfire wanted to question what sort of influence Starscream thought he had when he got another comm. call.

::You, er... Do I need to send someone down there?:: Blaster, currently acting as the prison surveillance security, asked, as hesitant as he was incredulous. Jetfire was remarkably calm when he replied, automatically shaking his helm slightly and getting a harsh pinch of a few of his neck cables in retaliation.

::I... er, assure you this is perfectly consensual. I'm not forcing him into anything.:: Jetfire attempted to straighten up, but Starscream still had a good grip and held him down. If he just changed his grip to lift the Seeker up as he straightened, Jetfire would have no problem. There was a short, barked laugh from whoever manned the cameras.

::I was honestly more worried 'bout you. That's slagging _Starscream_ you're that close to in a confined space!::

Jetfire chuckled, and this time stayed still, running a hand along the bottom of Starscream's left wing, up to the tip. ::I know. I've dealt with him... ah, quite a lot. Could I ask you to _lower_ the camera a bit? Not... turn it off or anything but not point... directly into the cell?::

::... Look, I dunno. I shouldn't. Even if he's locked in and you're a quarter taller than he is...::

::Like you observed, he's shorter than I, and also proportionally weaker. _If_ Starscream somehow had something that would get the better of me tucked away somewhere, or could get access to such an implement, then all the cameras in the whole of Autobot City won't help. Before anyone gets here, he'll already have done it.:: Jetfire hoped the kind of lackluster argument would be enough; he really didn't have much left to offer. He really shouldn't be doing this, either way, but it was hard to _not_ give in, especially with Starscream stroking his neck and their tongues chasing static electricity between them, and not just due to Starscream learning very quickly _what_ to touch, stroke or pinch when it came to Jetfire's neck, but also because when _else_..? Sure, they ought to be able to get away at some point, but actually planning anything would not just be foolish, but dangerous.

::... Right. Okay. Not for the full time you've got left alone with him, though.:: With that, though, there was the faint noise of the camera being lowered enough to point at their legs instead of viewing the whole cell. The sound of Starscream laughing vibrated against their tongues and the thinner, more sensitive plating inside their mouths as he spoke over the short-wave comm. which was the only one Starscream still had enabled.

::I didn't know you had it _in you_. I'm _impressed_.:: Starscream smirked against Jetfire's audial, then backed off, sitting down on the berth. Jetfire frowned and crossed his arms.

::I _shouldn't_ be doing this, but I haven't really changed and you know quite well what I can, and can't, do.:: The words were out before he could stop them, Jetfire wincing at the implicit return to the argument about him having to change and what he'd been willing, or not, to do to stay with the Decepticons. Starscream scowled and pointed at Jetfire, then patted the berth beside him harshly enough to make a ringing noise.

::Come over here and _shut up_.:: Starscream's gaze bounced around the cell as Jetfire slowly drew closer. Neither of them really knew what they were doing, but the kiss on the Moon had clearly... changed things. Then Jetfire had come down here despite the fact that there were other ways he could have checked up on Starscream, and Starscream? Took his opportunities when and where they came.

Sitting down, one leg under him, the other on the floor to be able to partly face Starscream, Jetfire reached out and ran a finger from the top of Starscream's helm, down the side and under his jaw.

::If we're both on the same path for where this is going... Starscream, do we _want_ to do this? You... are important. You'll always be, and this won't really complicate things personally; I'm technically already compromised when it comes to you,:: Jetfire said, helm cocked, the upper edge of an optic arched, and Starscream straightened, optics glittering. There was no reason to _not_ admit it. Starscream knew, after all. Otherwise he wouldn't have been so assured of Jetfire's help against Sunstorm.

::But the odds of this going _well_ , the number of outcomes that are anywhere _near_ favourable are---::

"You talk too much. Stop wasting time!" Starscream had apparently come to a decision, and no matter any initial hesitation, he was now set upon this path. Jetfire could of course decline. It wouldn't be hard. He'd just have to get up and leave the cell. Doing that was a lot harder than the action implied and... Jetfire didn't really want to. He knew what Starscream meant to him, and the chance to get that tiny bit closer, in a way they hadn't done before? The present situation might not be the most pleasant, but if they were going to wait for _that_ , they would have to wait---

"I said _stop thinking_ , you useless, overgrown calculator!" Starscream huffed, grabbing the wrist of the hand Jetfire had left laying against his arm after following the outline of his helm and jaw and yanked. That would of course not have got him anything unless Jetfire came willingly, which he did, scooting closer and leaning over Starscream, resting his other hand on the berth beside the Seeker.

"As you say." A smile tugging at his lips, Jetfire leaned down to drop a kiss on Starscream's nasal ridge, the smile only widening at Starscream's static buzz at him along with a quick drumming of his fingers against the nearest bit of white armour.

"Insufferable," Starscream muttered, and tilted his helm up, first bumping his nasal ridge into Jetfire's jaw before the larger jet angled down so they could kiss. Cautiously, though curious, Jetfire hummed softly, the noise caught between them and setting thin, softer plating vibrating, causing both of them to jerk slightly before Starscream echoed Jetfire. When clever blue fingers at the same time - and a lot more carefully than on the Moon - traced the edges of the vent slats of his intake vents, Jetfire let the sensation wash over his sensornet with a quiver and initiated the subroutines that would re-structure some nodes as well as heighten the sensitivity of them along with the attention paid to various physical stimuli. When he reached out to stroke one hand down the leading edge of one of Starscream's wings, the noise that interuppted the humming told him Starscream had done the same, as well as squirm.

Pushing Starscream backwards until the Seeker was half reclining down on the berth and half leaning against the wall at the head end of it, Jetfire trailed his hand down the wing, over to Starscream's side, following seams in the armour with a fingertip as the metal heated with his touch. Jetfire didn't have more than the narrowing of Starscream's optics, lambent in the shadow he cast over the Seeker as a warning before the hand that had been scraping over the vent slats dropped down to his hips, stroked down angles and then---

:: _Starscream_ \--:: While that was most assuredly a hiss over the comm, what came out as Starscream buried his thumb in the usually-but-now-even-more-so sensitive cables in the joint between thigh and hip, was definitely nothing so... admonishing. It was more like a moan, his optics flickering, and Starscream's concentrated look dissolved into the most insufferably smug grin. Jetfire didn't mind it as such, though. In fact it just... added... to it, and he couldn't even hear the noise of his fans turning on as Starscream stroked against the cables in his hip, and suddenly there was a _counter-charge_ to the one Starscream's touch was creating, crackling about Starscream's fingers.

Cutting off the sputtered moan that wanted to slip out, Jetfire leaned down, pushing Starscream's helm up and to the side so he could lock his lips over Starscream's throat, scraping his teeth down the flexible, slatted armour there slowly at first, but when Starscream's vents stuttered and his fans turned on, Jetfire continued. Nibbling down one of the cables he _almost_ managed to distract himself from the tingling charge and firm push of Starscream's thumb in his hip joint, pushing ever deeper to put pressure on the gimbal hidden within, making him squirm when Starscream paused.

::Don't be _quiet_ now, Jetfire. I want to _hear you_.:: The tone, even of it was partly obscured beneath the slight fuzz of static, as much as the words themselves made him chuckle, and then, startled, turn it into a breathless groan as Starscream _twisted_ the finger in the cables, while stroking the joint at the surface with the rest of his hand.

Charge was now freely building from fleeting touches and deeper stroking, tinkling lightning racing down wiring normally used for other things, now leading deeper and inwards, slowly collecting the building energy in the wiring and cicruitry around their spark chambers. Jetfire had attempted to sit up, or otherwise change his position, but Starscream had pulled at him to remain like he had been, partly hovering over the Seeker. He didn't mind, the heat they were dumping was caught partly between them, making the air heavy and warm, while his back was cool. The hand he wasn't using to help balancing himself, Jetfire trailed down Starscream's side, thumb digging into gaps and angles of his waist and along the cockpit canopy, then the pelvic armour, Starscream moaning voicelessly - that he was so _quiet_ was fascinating Jetfire - and canting his hips upwards.

Starscream smiled up at Jetfire, a tiny, lopsided little thing that was not nearly as wholesomely sweet as such an expression _ought_ to be, but it made something in Jetfire's spark flicker and swell. No one ever said he liked Starscream because he was a nice, considerate mech... At least, no one should believe that.

Little sparks like lightning shot along wiring, coupled with the scrape of fingers, heat, pleasure and friction along metal, the two flyers' frames closer than they'd been at the start, by now _completely heedless_ of any security surveillance, whether it was pointed at them or not. Starscream's hand was still buried in Jetfire's hip, because why would he switch when the nodes and wiring there were now so stimulated and suffused with charge that every twitch brought the large jet writhing, tiny little moans dropping from his vocals. The other hand wandered over the white plating until it found the edge of a down-turned wing, and squeezing the rounded ends where the tips folded back onto the wing itself, Starscream pinched it and then scraped his two-fingered grip up along the edge, flicking what ailerons he could reach.

The wing twitched and pushed into Starscream's grip as Jetfire raised his helm from Starscream's neck. Starscream wasn't sure whether to protest the lack of arrention as he'd _quite_ liked that thank you, given the charge coiling heavily around his sparkchamber. But Jetfire scraped his teeth along the edge of one of Starscream's vents before he suddenly leaned over, trailing over the wing and biting ailerons as if in reply to Starscream's touch. Jetfire reached the wingtip and then---

Starscream jerked, then writhed, but there was no sound at all except a thrumming noise from his engine. Thready static fuzz along the comm channel they'd been using joined the heated engine noise as Jetfire bit, worried, let up, and then bit the wingtip again, optics on Starscream to gauge if this was actually something _wanted_ and a small, pleased smile forming around the wingtip as it so very clearly _was_. Light and lightning rushed down circuits and swirled around his spark, which had coalesced into the chamber a while ago, and Starscream gasped noiselessly, swore over the comm and pushed his field against Jetfire's at the same time as he pushed a second finger into the cables of the hip joint, hooked them, and _twisted_.

Jetfire hadn't been very loud and he still wasn't as the touch nearly whited out his sensornet briefly, his field tingling with _Starscream_. The charge collecting in the wiring was hot, liquid lightning as he _tried_ to keep himself up and not collapse on Starscream to not risk crushing him... or at least not damage him. Tried, until he felt a hand stealing around his neck, feathering along cables at the back of his helm until they'd teased open a panel.

"... Star--!" Jetfire's optics flickered and then flared as Starscream's impending overload was suddenly added to his own as the jack of the cable Starscream had in his hand was plugged in and he bit down again. Starscream jerked, something _hummed_ , their fields melded between them in counterpoint like the best moments back when they'd become fully used to each other while flying and the charge that had collected, crested and held, released with a soundless, blinding rush. Jetfire, already on the edge, caught himself just before he collapsed down on Starscream, the charge violent against the ciruits as it released, thoughroughly whiting out everything and forcing a reboot as Starscream's overload hit him too.

********

That was _not_ what he'd been expecting. You didn't just... jack in a sensory transfer cable during overload right _before_ overload unless you were both going to do it. Playing with that aspect was usually initiated earlier, to let systems adjust to each other. Jetfire grimaced, his engine rumbling quietly in protest and his vocals resetting amid rebooting and recalibrating systems, programs and cooling armour.

"Shh." The hand skating over the top of his helm, as well as the non-commital attempt at being soothing, would have been sweeter if the other half of a pair of stasis-cuffs hadn't just snapped closed around his wrist, closing the loop and turning the cuffs on. What was Starscream _thinking_? He also couldn't say he particularly approved of the light pat on his helm. Rerouting as much resources and power as he could to the cables and pistons in his arms in an attempt to simply overwhelm the cuffs, Jetfire grunted as he strained but got _nowhere_ The doors to the cell-block slid open in the other side of the room just as Jetfire gave up with another grunt; Starscream knew what he was doing, and that would be suspicious if this wasn't _Starscream_.

When Starscream actually planned, he usually planned rather well, and if this was some sort of... contigency plan, he'd have had _time_... The barrel of some sort of weapon scraping against the side of his helm froze Jetfire a bit, and stopped whoever were now outside the cell in their tracks.

"This is ill-advised, Starscream, and I recommend you give that up; no one needs to be hurt." Optimus' voice reverberated through the relatively limited and empty space, and Starscream snorted.

"The only one who stands to get hurt is the giant lug above me, who, I'd like to point out, can't defend himself right now," Starscream said, and Jetfire didn't need to see his faceplates to be perfectly capable of hearing the smug grin... and could well-imagine the expression; helm tilted up and cocked, narrow stare that he was doubtlessly leveling at the Autobots.

::Starscream... I assure you, while the situation and position isn't the _best_ I can _still_ \---:: Jetfire was interrupted in his warning by Starscream's very annoyed comm voice.

::Quiet, you. Would you perhaps like me to take someone _else_ instead? You won't be able to act quickly enough with those cuffs anyway, and I could shoot something nonvital to make you even _less_ capable of defending yourself.:: Starscream's other hand thumped against the shoulder hidden from the Autobots, and then stroked over the metal. So that was how they were going to play this. Jetfire would say he was surprised, or annoyed, but all he could manage was exasperation. Perhaps because he was still tired and slightly aching (in a not entirely bad way) from having his circuits unannouncedly flooded with feedback from Starscream's overload. 

::... No. But there's no reason to go about this _this_ way.:: Jetfire frowned, only barely seeing the underside of Starscream's jaw and his lower face from this angle as he glanced upward, catching Starscream's smirk.

::Of course there was. It was... quite singular, and it was amusing to be able to do it this way. You also looked pretty spectacular and this way, you're of use to me.::

Oh, yes, because that was his highest goal in life, being _useful_ to Starscream. Jetfire flexed his hands, but by now the cuffs were doing their job very well - not accounting for the fact that he hadn't been able to overload them when he'd _tried_ \- and he could tell he had no strength as he balled his hands into brief fists.

"What do you want, Starscream?" Optimus shifted where he stood outside the cell, the scrape of metal on metal revealing he'd probably just crossed his arms over his chestplates, and there was a particular tired tone one could only get by attempting to converse or bargain with Starscream.

"Just to get out of here... and my null-rays back," Starscream growled and poked Jetfire with his spare weapon, whatever it was, pushing against the shoulder he'd earlier both hit and stroked. "You can have your overgrown air guardian back when I'm out of here."

Jetfire could decide to just not move, of course, but the cuffs were sapping enough strength that even with him being heavy, Starscream would be able to move him and yank him upright. Starscream could also probably get out from under him, but it'd hopefully take enough time that it'd be relatively easy enough for Prime and whoever else was there to get in and subdue the Seeker. But... Starscream had said he could shoot something non-vital, and Jetfire did believe that he could, and further _would_. He also didn't _really_ want Starscream locked up and whatever else might happen. Maybe the interface, the double overload and lack of recharge and less energy than usual was affecting his reasoning - besides the fact that Starscream was Starscream - but Jetfire slowly sat up and then got to standing, only briefly swaying as balance recalibrated. He winced as Starscream moved to his side, pushing his fingers into the slats of the vent - _again_ for the Matrix's sake - curling them there and obviously intending to use that to lead him around. The barrel of the weapon scraped against Jetfire's cockpit canopy, and Prime, Prowl and Jazz eyed each other before Optimus shook his helm.

"Very well." He looked like he was about to say more, but instead just rubbed his lower face and preceded them the way out after the bars to the cell had been deactivated. Jetfire's slight frown deepened as Starscream jerked the hand he had buried in his intake vent and while he did move, he transferred his stare down to the top of Starscream's helm.

"That's _not_ necessary and I'd _thank you_ to be a bit more... careful." He wouldn't say gentle. If he did, Starscream would just sneer at him.

"Good shields and hostages don't complain about their treatment, Jetfire." Despite that and the tone it had been said in, there was no more harsh yanks and Jetfire couldn't even bring himself to care what this looked like. He hadn't really refuelled properly after getting repaired; the only thing he'd had was what Ratchet had supplied him with immediately in the medbay. Which might have been stupid, but he'd merely intended to check up on Starscream and depending on how angry the Seeker was, talk to him a bit.

When they came out on the nearest landing balcony, the null-rays lay in the middle, waiting, and Starscream, after eyeing the null-rays, the opening behind them, and Jetfire, prodded the larger jet in a silent demand that he pick them up. To keep some sort of peace, and to _finally_ get Starscream's fingers out of his abused vent, Jetfire did so, handing them over with a cocked helm and an arched upper optic edge.

"Satisfied now?" Jetfire shifted on his feet, denied in his attempt at crossing his arms since his hands were still cuffed in front of him.

"I am _never_ satisfied! But this will do for now," Starscream huffed as he attached the null-rays again, looking up to meet Jetfire's optics. They just stood there for nearly a full klik, until Starscream whirled around and shot off from the balcony, flying away as fast as he could.

"Are you all right, Jetfire?"

Turning around, Jetfire briefly offlined his optics while Optimus helped get rid of the cuffs. He seemed to be asked that quite a bit recently.

"Yes. He didn't actually hurt me." Besides jamming that cable unasked into the port, and yanking him around by his vent. Optimus turned the stasis-cuffs over in his hands slowly, looking from them to Jetfire after a few moments.

"Did you know that would happen?" Optimus' voice was quiet, Jetfire meeting the intent stare with a measured, nearly flat one of his own.

"No. I hardly suspected that he'd have... er. Those things on him." Jetfire shook his helm and didn't elaborate, because while he hadn't _known_... He'd considered the possibility of Starscream using his presence to get away. Had factored that into the risk/gain of asking Prowl to allow him to visit Starscream. He'd thought up quite a few scenarios and calculated their possibilities, but none of them had even remotely involved interface and Starscream using his overload feedback to knock him out long enough to... take advantage.

So no. He hadn't _known_. But he'd... suppositioned that Starscream might have use of his presence, and maybe he should have stayed outside the cell, maybe he shouldn't have gone at all, but...

"All right. Thank you." Optimus left then, and Jetfire turned around, staring up at the sky with arms crossed. He should go refuel. In a moment.


	6. After First Contact

This was beginning to get familiar. Jetfire dove, angled himself and transformed, sweeping Starscream up with one arm and shooting the group of... sharkticonsm apparently, to pieces with the rifle in his other one, before flying up in the air again. Of course he'd hardly cleared ground before Starscream started to complain, _despite_ the injuries to his wings.

"Put me _down_ , Jetfire! Now! I don't need your _help_ ," Starscream snapped, pushing against the frame holding him, more embarrassed than actually angry. Then there was the fact that someone could have seen Jetfire just... swoop in and pick him up like a ragdoll, or worse, a damsel in distress and he _wasn't_. He'd also kill anyone who asked him how he knew that phrase, even if it was hard to not pick up on human culture after nearly two decades on the planet.

"In a minute. If you have to, consider it a return favour for the help you gave me earlier." Jetfire circled the battlefield, picking off stray enemies from above, apparently unconcerned about the Seeker he was holding to himself in the fashion remniscent of a human girl lugging around a doll in one arm. At the mention of _that_ incident, Starscream flinched and scowled, giving one more token push before settling down.

" _That_ was a---" He couldn't say it was a mistake, because it hadn't been, even if it _should have_ been one. They shouldn't have done many of the things they had been doing lately, but it seemed they were simply in this... spiral. Undeniable, impossible to break out of. "If anyone's killing you, it'll be me. And not _now_ anyway." Banging his helm against the closest bit of plating, Starscream attempted to justify it. But really, if he was supposed to justify anything, he'd have to go back to 'got Jetfire out of the ice and later thawed him', because no matter the... probable advantages to him from that, he _should_ have killed him. But he hadn't. And now things were... He was even _listening_ to Jetfire! Not that he'd _wanted_ to, but the point Jetfire had made from That Argument had stuck, and things had simply sort of grown from that, and the moon and _after_.

There were the other lapses, than the already admitted ones, of course. That he hadn't immediately left afer digging Jetfire out of the sand. That he hadn't killed him during the argument... or the earlier fight. That he hadn't worked a bit harder to get out of Jetfire's... grasp... back after the fight with Unicron on the Moon. That he hadn't actually attempted to rid the Autobots of one of their greatest assets when he used Jetfire as a hostage--- With a twitch at the corner of his left optic, Starscream broke off that thought and skipped to something else instead. That he wasn't _now_ doing more to get free. With a huff, Starscream cuffed the shoulder to the arm that was holding him, that being the part of Jetfire most easily reached the way he was held.

"You're _insufferable_. Now put. me. down. before someone notices." Even if they had - marginally - been working together at the sudden attack that had descended on them during a nearly... lazily _routine_ battle. Things hadn't really been the same since the confrontation with that giant transforming planet that was apparently an evil, planet-eating and dimension-destroying _deity_ \- not that Starscream believed that part, of course - but they were getting there, and now... this.

"Of course. It seems it's mostly over now---er." Jetfire's optics flickered as he broke off, staring slightly unfocused down on the ground far below, the water in the dam glittering in the light. The humans were _lucky_ the giant construction had held and been kept safe from being destroyed by the Decepticons, or the attacking Quintesson forces alike.

" _What_? Stop staring like a sparkless drone and tell me!" Starscream banged his fist against white armour in frustration, but even as Jetfire slowly began to speak, Starscream got a message telling him to _not_ murder the giant jet he was "clearly" holding hostage "in _some_ fashion, surely", because...

"Er, well... It seems that, despite our... ah, _differences_ , there'll be... Negotiations. Over a cease-fire. And---"

"Potential _alliance_ against the five-faced _freaks_ who're behind these... rejects that're attacking us. Megatron has _completely lost it_!" Starscream flung his hand out and then almost hit Jetfire again, only barely aborting that motion due to the narrow stare directed down at him. It didn't matter that he himself would probably, maybe, have done the same if it had been expedient, what mattered was that _Megatron_ shouldn't get such ideas! Jetfire's stare spoke clearly of the hypocrisy he could see and then he shook his helm.

"If it works, I don't see the issue, despite the odds against a... er, _smooth_ alliance considering everything." Jetfire shrugged as he descended and put Starscream down. The Seeker frowned and then strutted over to stand beside Megatron, while Jetfire simply stood off to the side by the rest of the Autobots, as they had apparently decided the best place to at least keep the initial discussion was right there on the battlefield at the dam. 

Not that it was a... completely unsound decision, considering that neither would agree to meet in, or near their respective bases (which would be hard to accomplish with the Nemesis, anyway), and thus Earth in general, or, perhaps, the Moon, was currently the most "neutral" ground to be found. 

Crossing his arms, Jetfire cocked his helm and simply listened, though he was amazed that neither side took to arms as the discussion, which could barely be called such, as well as tempers flared. There was, something, somewhere, in Jetfire's processor that hoped this would be the lead-in to something _more_. Something that would abort what would surely happen and change the course they seemed to be set on, repeating or making worse the past conditons of battle and when any one side "won". Of course, nothing might come from this. There was already skepticism being put forth about these Quintessons being enough of a threat - compared to Unicron, which they had, after all, defeated while merely forced to work together in a most slap-dash manner - to _justify_ even a cease-fire.

"--- You're a _fool_ , Prime! This planet isn't even ours, and no matter the _resources_ , if it would be expedient to let the Quintessons _have it_ while we regroup---"

"Oh, _mighty leader_... didn't you say something about our _rightful past_ a while ago? Something about 'protection'..? I'm _sure_ I remember---eck." Starscream brought one hand up to attempt to bend the black hand around his neck away in a rather impressively restrained and silent manner. It wasn't as if he was choked into voicelessness, despite the fingers closing around his throat. Though, given the dark rage on Megatron's faceplates from being interrupted as well as having had that statement of his flung back at him wasn't very promising for Starscream's continued unharmed state at all. Suddenly, though, the anger smoothed into a scowl as he flung the Seeker away.

"You can't expect us to hold something that's _untenable_ , we do have our own planet to protect, and from what _I_ know, they would be all too happy to wrest it away from us," Megatron finally said, arms crossed, and Prime stared quietly for several minutes, optics narrowed, and then inclined his helm.

"We'll see, Megatron. We can't leave the humans to fend for themselves."

Jetfire turned his attention away from the discussion - it was being logged and he could review it later - to where Starscream was getting to his feet, a thunderous scowl on his dark faceplates. Then he actually looked up, blue and red optics met, and the expression smoothed out into something a lot more haughtier. Jetfire just barely kept the static sigh... or the smile, he wasn't sure which would win out, inside and instead just cocked his helm slightly.

//Nothing good will come from this.// Starscream's expression was surprisingly even as he took his place beside Megatron again, and the doomsday proclamation was probably a lot more... neutral than it would otherwise have been if it weren't for the blue and white frame on Megatron's _other_ side.

//No need to be _that_ pessimistic. But I do think it relies on how much of a threat they turn out to be.// Jetfire twitched his shoulders, and privately hoped that, no matter what, some sort of reachable goalposts would be set by this. Right now, with this discussion going on, the gap between the amassed Autobots and Decepticons had never seemed both so obvious and unnecessary. Despite the things done and said since he'd been thawed, the differences between the _then_ on Cybertron and the _now_ on Earth, especially Starscream... taunted Jetfire. 

His earlier realisation had been made under pressure, and Starscream's... mellowed behaviour hadn't really mattered back then. Not with what was going on, since it had merely been the sort of (nostalgic, though still important - driving, really) realisation that went deeper than taking any current changes into mind. But then he survived Sunstorm, survived _beyond_ that immediate realisation and now...

Now, it stood out even more, especially against the arguments they _had_ had since then, as well as the quiet moments and the intimate ones. It was strange how things went, wasn't it? He'd never actually considered the possibility of what they had, or almost had, right now. He supposed it was something of a pity they hadn't gotten there before everything, but then, things might have been worse if they _had_. They also might not have, because physically intimate or not, they weren't actually _closer_ than before. They'd always been close, and the intimacy didn't alter that any.

//I'll be as _realistic_ as I want. This is completely unnecessary, and _absolutely foolish_! If _I_ was---// Starscream cut himself off, optics briefly narrowing before his expression smoothed out again. Jetfire did his outmost best to keep the smile that wanted to slip out unexpressed.

//Whatever happens, I'm sure you'll get the most out of it.// Jetfire finally acceded quietly, and he knew he _shouldn't_ , but the tiny smirk on Starscream's faceplates that his words elicted was - to Jetfire, at least - almost embarrassingly charming. Most would probably have questioned it, but well. There was a _reason_ Jetfire had befriended the Seeker in the beginning, and it had, perhaps surprisingly, had nothing to very little to do with his projects and research results, and all to do with Starscream's very interesting way of going about it. 

Not necessarily the correct way, but facinating in its own way.

//Of course I will.// Starscream briefly looked Jetfire in the face, that smirk still in place, before he turned the tiny bit away from the larger jet towards the actual discussion going on; not enough of a difference anyone else would have noticed he'd even been turned towards Jetfire, but enough that Jetfire saw the difference. 

No one needed to know what that difference meant though, and Jetfire looked back at Optimus, actively listening again even as Blaster reported an incoming message relayed from the local authorities about the... situation that they were discussing. Well, they'd see where this would take them.


	7. After a Betrayal

They were probably lucky they had negotiated, or more like started to negotiate, a cease-fire and a sort-of alliance before the greater bulk of the Quintesson forces started to arrive. That didn't _nearly_ help the humans as much as it helped the Cybertronians, even if the Decepticons weren't going out of their way - or even at all, currently - to attack the humans. At least they weren't helpless; there was that Centurion project, which they used to great effect. This didn't make them _safe_ , or that all of them even trusted the cybertronians still and sometimes that led to things like, ah, what was the phrase? "Friendly fire", right, and despite the fact that Jetfire could feel the injury in his back along with the more expected ones that were scattered on his front, he couldn't - even as he went down on his knees, barely avoiding slamming into a building and killing however many were still inside - regret having stood in the way. 

He just had to... 

The hand he was not currently using to hold himself up went to the shattered cockpit, and then above, to the torn-up chestplates, shielding the light spilling out from between gaps in metal that ought not be there. The fact that his spark had retreated to his spark chamber instead of being diffused through his frame revealed the extent of his injuries, but it also unfortunately made him even more vulnerable in case of further attack.

"Jetfire!"

No. No, that wasn't good at all. Setting his jaw, Jetfire attempted to straighten up as fast as he could, but the stabbing flare of pain over his sensornet as well as something creaking threateningly kept him in place as Starscream, engines booming in this limited space, landed on the street in front of him before he wedged himself in beside Jetfire.

"Starscream, don't, there's---" Jetfire grimaced and attempted to get to his feet again, since that would leave more space for them both as well as no chance of crushing the buildings on either side of the road.

"Shut up. I _saw that_. They don't deserve your _protection_!" Starscream looked down the road behind Jetfire, the humans who had barely avoided being destroyed by the sharkticon and Quintesson Jetfire had taken care of now standing around Ratchet's feet as he had been interrupted in his attempt to get to Jetfire by a brief surge in the battle. Starscream sneered, as much vindicated in his (and, in general Decepticon attitudes about humans) opinion of the "dominant species" as he was angry. _No one_ got to shoot the idiot jet besides him. Especially not potentially fatally enough to kill him. Even if the shot from behind hadn't done more than crack the boosters, the energon leaking from them was dangerous enough on its own.

"Starscream, _enough_. That won't--- help. Anything." Jetfire frowned, briefly lifting his hand away from the hole now partly baring his spark to the world in a way it most definitely _shouldn't_ be bared, clamping down on the arm Starscream had raised to force it down. The null-ray quieted.

"It would help _me_ ," Starscream said with a huff, cast another narrow glance behind him before he leaned down, pulling and then pushing at Jetfire's hand to make him remove it from his arm and put it over the hole in his chestplates instead.

"And don't you _dare_ deactivate." The snarl was underlined by a brief, harsh rev from Starscream's engines as he leaned forward, pressing the fronts of their helms together before he abruptly got to his feet, flight systems powering up.

"All yours, Autobot. I'm amazed any of you are even still functioning as soft-sparked as you are, not letting the fatally wounded die on the field!" With that, and ignoring that Ratchet must have seen what he'd done, Starscream lifted off from the ground and - perhaps miraculously - only attacked the Quintesson forces still present, instead of any humans.


	8. After Reunification

It was, all things considered, a rather solemn affair. But then, with their history, the past and differences that had and still did divide them, there wasn't much else it _could be_. It was a symbol, and symbols were important. As for _right now_ , the majority of the population the part that had been happy enough to settle once Shockwave structured things, were obviously pleased at the decreased risk of a new civil war. The fighting wasn't _over_ , the Quintessons were still metaphorically and sometimes literally banging on the gates, but Jetfire hoped that if they survived this, in the end, this unification would hold beyond needing a reason to be around, and would stay just because... it was.

"That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen," Starscream said with a sneer as he landed on the balcony, scowling across the plaza and the collected crowd to the entrance to the Chamber of the Ancients, where two familiar frames stood, side by side. Jetfire followed Starscream's glare and hummed softly.

"The colour's chosen since it isn't at all connected to either of our faction insignias." Deliberately misinterpreting what Starscream was commenting on, Jetfire nonetheless studied the insignia now emblazoned on the structure above the entrance. The insignia, he knew, both Optimus Prime and Megatron had consented to wear as a symbol of the reunification of their divided species, as the ancient symbol - somehow - incorporated both the Autobot and Decepticon brands.

"Yes, yes, _that too_." There was an annoyed grumble as Starscream briefly twisted his helm first right and then left to glare at his wings where the new brand had been emblazoned. Jetfire made sure to not be looking at Starscream as he continued, a faint smile undeniably tugging on his lips.

"You're just upset its not you there, with a crown and everything," Jetfire said, voice mild, and while he was _sorely pressed_ to not turn around to get a proper look on Starscream's expression...

"Yes, exa---what, no! How'd you even... _Jetfire_ ," Starscream snapped, storming up to the railing and wedging himself between the railing and the larger jet, who stepped back to be able to look down at Starscream properly.

"You _should_ have locked that door to the lab more often; at least it would have paused me for a second or so until I unlocked it. I don't really see how you could consider a _crown_ a suitable thing to wear at a stipulated ceremony to recognise your efforts in science and your exploratory successes." Jetfire tilted his helm, and he really _should not_ be smiling, but it was hard not to.

"You. are _insufferable_." Starscream glared, knowing that was a sentence he repeated often about and to Jetfire. Since it was true, however, he didn't mind. After a beat of narrowed staring, Starscream engaged his thrusters to gracefully rise up in the air and land on the railing to actually become a little taller than Jetfire. With a smirk meeting Jetfire's blankly inquiring look, he grabbed Jetfire's chinguard with one hand put the other at the back of his helm and yanked Jetfire forward.

Resting one hand on the railing and the other along Starscream's side, Jetfire tilted his helm into the kiss and didn't bother being annoyed that Starscream was trying to use his new leverage in a very annoying and overly domineering way. He could let the Seeker have this; it wasn't as if he could stand on something to be taller than Jetfire all the time. And anyway, it wasn't entirely... displeasing. Starscream's solid grip made something flicker and twist, though he wouldn't admit to that.

Setting the thinner, malleable plating of his lips vibrating with a soft hum, Jetfire smirked as Starscream shuddered slightly beneath his hand, and he stroked his thumb along the edge of the cockpit. Giving Jetfire a narrow, smoldering-red glare, Starscream moved the hand he had at the back of Jetfire's helm to pluck and stroke down his throat cables, smirking as the larger jet breathed out a moan between them. Straightening up, Starscream nonchalantly turned around and, still standing on the railing, leaned back against Jetfire.

"Don't expect that _all_ the time." Starscream crossed his arms and stared down at Megatron and Prime, not yet back to his earlier levels of annoyance as Jetfire just snorted.

"No, of course not. I'd estimate a... hm, thirty-five point twelve percent uptime? Maybe. You'll certainly be busy, and I as well, and this _isn't_ considering in the factors of future battles or attacks that you'd need to participate in or help organize the aerial defense against--- Starscream." Jetfire looked up at Starscream with a frown, attempting to jerk his wing out of reach, but Starscream was rather comfortably in range where he was, and just gave the appendage another pinch before removing his hand.

"Shut up, Jetfire. We won't be _that_ busy. Even if Skywarp will be useless and I look at his appointment with Thundercracker and I as merely _necessary_ because he's _trine_ , Thundercracker, at least, is capable enough to be counted on to do some things on his own."

Jetfire might have argued the point, but it wasn't as if we wasn't willing to adjust his position. To be honest, though, that was the number he'd got from merely curiously running simulations and calculations to see what sort of free time Starscream probably _should_ expect. This hadn't even, in fact, taken into account Skywarp's... lazy or otherwise rather... unsuitable-to-leadership, nature, despite his background. And he wasn't thinking of the fact that Skywarp wasn't exactly the sharpest processor around.

"If you say so," Jetfire murmured, resting one hand at Starscream's hip and smiled slightly when a smaller hand landed on top of it, Starscream still studiously staring down with a narrow glare at the two prominent figures on the other side of the plaza.

"I _do_. Now mute it so I can listen to this _foolishness_. I don't trust Thundercracker not to be busy keeping Skywarp in line so he doesn't embarrass us to actually remember to log this." There was a sneer on his faceplates as he spoke; clearly he didn't think whatever the Prime of Cybertron and the High Lord Megatron had to say would be interesting or useful at all, but some prudence told the one-third of the new rulers of the city-state of Vos that there might be _something_ he might need to actually know. Megatron hadn't gotten a _longer_ temper after all.

"Yes, Starscream." Jetfire smiled and shook his helm, earning a huff and a rap on the back of his hand in 'punishment' before that hand settled back against his, fingers wedging between his own. Maybe it was slightly too optimistic to hope for something _lasting_ from this, but... 

Jetfire turned his helm and dropped a brief kiss on the side of the nearest vent, ignoring the stare he got as he turned back to the speech. But he'd rather hope that in the aftermath of the current war against the Quintessons, this reunification would hold, instead of falling to pieces and leading to another civil war. Things were different now, after all.

That, Jetfire decided, as Starscream squeezed their joined hands, would be worth ignoring the number of simulations and calculations that pointed at a less than twenty percent chance that it _would_ hold. Not even half of the simulations and calculations showed that result anyway. Merely by joining together against first Unicron and then the Quintessons had they broken any earlier pattern of conflict. He wasn't _always_ right, after all, and maybe this time would be one of the times he wasn't. He couldn't say he'd mind that.

Especially not with Starscream leaned against him, optics narrowed in thought as they listened to the speech and ceremony below. No, he wouldn't mind that at all. What happened _after_ this would determine how things would go, after all.


End file.
